Wes White on “Works of the Law”

“We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Rom. 3:28).

Wes White writes,

Our works are not the ground or material cause of our justification, and only faith is the way we take hold of Christ for salvation (Jn. 3:16, Gal. 2:16). This exegetical issue is at the heart of our belief that our justification is by faith alone in Christ alone.The opponents of justification by faith alone have to redefine “works of the law” so that it is talking about only some type of works. They do not want it to exclude all works, for they do not want to exclude good works from our justification. Thus, they have always argued that the “works of the law” refer only to the ceremonial laws or the works done before regeneration. However, the Protestant Church has always recognized that when the Bible excludes works of the law from our justification that it includes any and all works that we do whether before or after justification.